Biochemical characterisation of a cassava (Manihot esculenta crantz) diversity panel for post-harvest physiological deterioration; metabolite involvement and environmental influence.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) produces edible roots, a major carbohydrate source feeding more than 800 million people in Africa, Latin America, Oceania and Asia. Post-harvest physiological deterioration (PPD) renders harvested cassava roots unpalatable and unmarketable. Decades of research on PPD have elucidated several genetic, enzymatic and metabolic processes involved. Breeding populations were established to enable verification of robust biomarkers for PPD resistance. For comparison, these PPD populations have been cultivated concurrently with diversity population for carotenoid (ß-carotene) content. Results highlighted a significant variation of the chemotypes due to environmental factors. Less than 3% of the detected molecular features showed consistent trends between the two harvest years and were putatively identified as phenylpropanoid derived compounds (e.g. caffeoyl rutinoside). The data corroborated that ∼20 µg ß-carotene/g DW can reduced the PPD response of the cassava roots to a score of ∼1. Correlation analysis showed a significant correlation of ß-carotene content at harvest to PPD response (R2 -0.55). However, the decrease of ß-carotene over storage was not significantly correlated to initial content or PPD response. Volatile analysis observed changes of apocarotenoids derived from ß-carotene, lipid oxidation products (alkanes, alcohols and carbonyls and esters) and terpenes. The majority of these volatiles (>90%) showed no significant correlation to ß-carotene or PPD. Observed data indicated an increase (∼2-fold) of alkanes in varieties with ß-carotene >10 µg/g DW and a decrease (∼60%) in varieties with less ß-carotene. Fatty acid methyl esters with a chain length > C9 were detected solely after storage and show lower levels in varieties with higher ß-carotene content. In combination with correlation values to PPD (R2 ∼0.3; P-value >0.05), the data indicated a more efficient ROS quenching mechanism in PPD resistant varieties.

Identification of water transitions using a combination of moisture sorption characteristics and dielectric properties of different parts of jasmine rice (Oryza sativa).

BACKGROUND: In this work, water transition points (first transition: monolayer-multilayer water; and second transition: multilayer-free and solvent water) of different parts of jasmine rice including white rice, brown rice and bran were identified through the integration of sorption isotherm and dielectric properties data. Desorption isotherm data were fitted to four established models to select the optimal model for describing the sorption behaviors. Then, dielectric properties such as dielectric constant (ε') and dielectric loss factor (ε″) were measured across various moisture content levels within the frequency range of 200-20 000 MHz. RESULTS: A type III isotherm was observed for all samples and the Peleg model was the best fit with the experimental data. Monolayer moisture content of the samples, estimated using the GAB model, ranged from 3.25% to 4.17% dry basis. For dielectric properties, frequency and moisture dependencies were evident for all sample types. Moreover, the sorption isotherm models effectively described the relationship between water activity (aw) and dielectric properties as reflected by their goodness of fit, and their strong correlation through principal component analysis and Pearson's correlation results. CONCLUSION: The first water transition occurs at aw values of 0.11, 0.12, and 0.22, while the second transition appears at aw values of 0.9, 0.9 and 0.75-0.85 for white rice, brown rice and bran, respectively. This knowledge will be useful for food processors, providing insights into the optimization of food processing and storage conditions to extend food products' shelf life. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Omnidirectional image super-resolution via position attention network.

For convenient transmission, omnidirectional images (ODIs) usually follow the equirectangular projection (ERP) format and are low-resolution. To provide better immersive experience, omnidirectional image super resolution (ODISR) is essential. However, ERP ODIs suffer from serious geometric distortion and pixel stretching across latitudes, generating massive redundant information at high latitudes. This characteristic poses a huge challenge for the traditional SR methods, which can only obtain the suboptimal ODISR performance. To address this issue, we propose a novel position attention network (PAN) for ODISR in this paper. Specifically, a two-branch structure is introduced, in which the basic enhancement branch (BE) serves to achieve coarse deep feature enhancement for extracted shallow features. Meanwhile, the position attention enhancement branch (PAE) builds a positional attention mechanism to dynamically adjust the contribution of features at different latitudes in the ERP representation according to their positions and stretching degrees, which achieves the enhancement for the differentiated information, suppresses the redundant information, and modulate the deep features with spatial distortion. Subsequently, the features of two branches are fused effectively to achieve the further refinement and adapt the distortion characteristic of ODIs. After that, we exploit a long-term memory module (LM), promoting information interactions and fusions between the branches to enhance the perception of the distortion, aggregating the prior hierarchical features to keep the long-term memory and boosting the ODISR performance. Extensive results demonstrate the state-of-the-art performance and the high efficiency of our PAN in ODISR.

Image processing based modeling for Rosa roxburghii fruits mass and volume estimation.

The mass and volume of Rosa roxburghii fruits are essential for fruit grading and consumer selection. Physical characteristics such as dimension, projected area, mass, and volume are interrelated. Image-based mass and volume estimation facilitates the automation of fruit grading, which can replace time-consuming and laborious manual grading. In this study, image processing techniques were used to extract fruit dimensions and projected areas, and univariate (linear, quadratic, exponential, and power) and multivariate regression models were used to estimate the mass and volume of Rosa roxburghii fruits. The results showed that the quadratic model based on the criterion projected area (CPA) estimated the best mass (R2 = 0.981) with an accuracy of 99.27%, and the equation is M = 0.280 + 0.940CPA + 0.071CPA2. The multivariate regression model based on three projected areas (PA1, PA2, and PA3) estimated the best volume (R2 = 0.898) with an accuracy of 98.24%, and the equation is V = - 8.467 + 0.657PA1 + 1.294PA2 + 0.628PA3. In practical applications, cost savings can be realized by having only one camera position. Therefore, when the required accuracy is low, estimating mass and volume simultaneously from only the dimensional information of the side view or the projected area information of the top view is recommended.

Influence of beeswax-based fish oil oleogels on the mechanism of water and oil retention in Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) meat emulsion gels: Filling, emulsification and phase transition.

Oleogels have been used in the gelled surimi products to replace animal fats due to its structure characteristics. The effect of structure characteristics in fish oil oleogels on the mechanism of oil/water retention was investigated in meat emulsions. Beeswax assembly improved the oil and water retention. The unsaturation degree of fatty acids lowered the mobility of bound water, immobilized water as well as bound fat in the fish oil oleogel, but enhanced the mobility of free water and protons of unsaturated fatty acids. Beeswax addition and oil phase characteristics could enhance ß-sheets, disulfide bonds and hydrophobic force to improve the viscoelasticity, gel strength and oil/water retention. Beeswax assembly facilitated the tight micro-sol network and filling effect, and high unsaturation degree promoted the emulsification effect, thus reducing phase transition temperature and juice loss. The study could lay the foundation for development of gelled shrimp meat products with EPA and DHA.

Impact of visual and textural characteristics of street walls on stress recovery.

Rapid urbanization increases psychological stress among pedestrians, potentially heightening mental health disorders. This study examines the role of street walls' visual and textural characteristics in stress recovery, using Qingdao as a case study. Virtual reality is employed to simulate five distinct street walls: yellow mortar, brown stone, red brick, green plant, and white mortar. The stress recovery effectiveness of these walls was evaluated through psychological and physiological indicators from 48 young college students. Results indicated that street walls with warm tones, particularly brown stone, significantly aid stress recovery. Psychologically, Restorative Components Scale was highest for brown stone at 1.13. Physiologically, it was linked with notable reductions in diastolic and pulse pressure (decreases of 2.95 mmHg and 2.27 mmHg, respectively), and enhanced parasympathetic activity, as evidenced by the fastest decrease in low frequency/high frequency ratio (LF/HF), and increases in pNN50 and RR (0.14-2.01% and 1.57-11.81 ms, respectively). For urban design, the incorporation of warm-toned materials and natural elements like stone is recommended for their superior restorative benefits.

Analysis of anatomic location of burns inpatients in China from 2009 to 2018.

BACKGROUND: Burns cause serious physical and psychological harm to patients, placing a heavy burden on the global healthcare system. Our previous study detailed the epidemiological characteristics of burn injuries in Chinese inpatients from 2009 to 2018. Interestingly, the anatomic locations of burn injuries vary by gender, age, provinces, and outcomes among different causes. Therefore, this current study aims to analyze the characteristics of burn injuries in inpatients with various burn sites by collecting data in China from 2009 to 2018. This analysis will inform future healthcare system decisions and provide effective strategies. METHODS: Burns inpatients from 196 hospitals across 31 provinces in China were included in the study, covering the period from 2009 to 2018. The data collected encompassed information on gender, age, etiology, regions, clinical outcomes, and anatomical locations of the injuries. Data analysis was conducted using Microsoft Excel 2007. RESULTS: From 2009 to 2018, a total of 333,995 burns inpatients were recorded. The most vulnerable parts to burns were multiple burn sites (230,090, 68.89%). Women were more susceptible to lower limb burns (15,608, 14%), while men were more prone to eye injuries (8,387, 3.37%) and hand burns (6,119, 2.75%). The age group of 0-10 years was the most vulnerable to burns across all body areas, including internal organs. In China, individuals aged 20-50 years were at a higher risk of head and neck burns compared to other age groups. The Han population showed increased vulnerability to eye injuries (2.12 times higher than minorities), respiratory tract issues (2.09 times higher than minorities), and trunk burns (1.83 times higher than minorities), while being less susceptible to internal organ injuries (0.23 times fewer than minorities) and lower limb burns (0.78 times fewer than minorities). The southwest region had the highest proportion of burns inpatients with burns affecting single body parts, whereas the eastern area had the highest rates of respiratory tract burns (0.85%) and multiple burn sites (80.64%). Scalding was identified as the most common cause of burns, while flame burns (769, 55.81%) and chemical burns (438, 47.35%) were the main causes of respiratory tract and internal organ injuries, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides an initial description of characteristics of burns inpatients with various anatomic locations of burns in China over the past decade. Our findings will contribute to the most up-to-date clinical evidence database for healthcare planning and prevention initiatives in both China and other countries.

Vertically Phase Separated Photomultiplication Organic Photodetectors with p-n Heterojunction Type Ultrafast Dynamic Characteristics.

Photomultiplication (PM)-type organic photodetectors (OPDs), which typically form a homogeneous distribution (HD) of n-type dopants in a p-type polymer host (HD PM-type OPDs), have achieved a breakthrough in device responsivity by surpassing a theoretical limit of external quantum efficiency (EQE). However, they face limitations in higher dark current and slower dynamic characteristics compared to p-n heterojunction (p-n HJ) OPDs due to inherent long lifetime of trapped electrons. To overcome this, we have developed a new PM-type OPD that demonstrates ultrafast dynamic properties through a vertical phase separation (VPS) strategy between the p-type polymer (host) and n-type acceptor (dopant), referred to as VPS PM-type OPDs. Notably, VPS PM-type OPDs show a remarkable increase (by three orders of magnitude) in -3 dB cut-off frequency (120 kHz) and over a 200-fold faster response time (rising time = 4.8 µs, falling time = 8.3 µs) compared to HD PM-type OPDs, while maintaining high EQE of 1,121% and specific detectivity of 2.53 × 1013 Jones at -10 V. The VPS PM OPD represents a groundbreaking advancement by demonstrating the coexistence of p-n HJ and PM modes within a single photoactive layer for the first time. This innovative approach holds the potential to enhance both static and dynamic properties of OPDs. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Prevalence of clinical characteristics of lipodystrophy in the US adult population in a healthcare claims database.

BACKGROUND: Lipodystrophy is characterized by progressive loss of adipose tissue and consequential metabolic abnormalities. With new treatments emerging for lipodystrophy, there is a growing need to understand the prevalence of specific comorbidities that may be commonly associated with lipodystrophy to contextualize the natural history of lipodystrophy without any disease modifying therapy. OBJECTIVE: To examine the risk of specific clinical characteristics in people living with lipodystrophy (LD) in 2018-2019 compared with the general US population, among the commercially insured US population. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the 2018-2019 Clinformatics® Data Mart database. An adult LD cohort (age ≥ 18 years) with at least ≥ 1 inpatient or ≥ 2 outpatient LD diagnoses was created. The LD cohort included non-HIV-associated LD (non-HIV-LD) and HIV-associated LD (HIV-LD) subgroups and compared against age- and sex-matched control groups with a 1:4 ratio from the general population with neither an LD or an HIV diagnosis using odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: We identified 546 individuals with non-HIV-LD (mean age, 60.3 ± 14.9 years; female, 67.6%) and 334 individuals with HIV-LD (mean age, 59.2 ± 8.3 years; female, 15.0%) in 2018-2019. Compared with the general population, individuals with non-HIV-LD had higher risks (odds ratio [95% confidence interval]) for hyperlipidemia (3.32 [2.71-4.09]), hypertension (3.58 [2.89-4.44]), diabetes mellitus (4.72 [3.85-5.79]), kidney disease (2.78 [2.19-3.53]), liver fibrosis or cirrhosis (4.06 [1.66-9.95]), cancer (2.20 [1.59-3.01]), and serious infections resulting in hospitalization (3.00 [2.19-4.10]). Compared with individuals with HIV, those with HIV-LD have higher odds of hypertension (1.47 [1.13-1.92]), hyperlipidemia (2.46 [1.86-3.28]), and diabetes (1.37 [1.04-1.79]). CONCLUSIONS: LD imposes a substantial burden on affected individuals due to a high prevalence of metabolic comorbidities and other complications as compared with the general non-LD population. Future longitudinal follow-up studies investigating the causality between LD and observed comorbidities are warranted.

Establishment and validation of a predictive nomogram for polyuria during general anesthesia in thoracic surgery.

BACKGROUND: To develop and evaluate a predictive nomogram for polyuria during general anesthesia in thoracic surgery. METHODS: A retrospective study was designed and performed. The whole dataset was used to develop the predictive nomogram and used a stepwise algorithm to screen variables. The stepwise algorithm was based on Akaike's information criterion (AIC). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to develop the nomogram. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the model's discrimination ability. The Hosmer-Lemeshow (HL) test was performed to check if the model was well calibrated. Decision curve analysis (DCA) was performed to measure the nomogram's clinical usefulness and net benefits. P < 0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance. RESULTS: The sample included 529 subjects who had undergone thoracic surgery. Fentanyl use, gender, the difference between mean arterial pressure at admission and before the operation, operation type, total amount of fluids and blood products transfused, blood loss, vasopressor, and cisatracurium use were identified as predictors and incorporated into the nomogram. The nomogram showed good discrimination ability on the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.6937) and is well calibrated using the Hosmer-Lemeshow test. Decision curve analysis demonstrated that the nomogram was clinically useful. CONCLUSIONS: Individualized and precise prediction of intraoperative polyuria allows for better anesthesia management and early prevention optimization.

Experimental investigation of a dual mode antenna using characteristic mode analysis with enhanced directivity for GSM/5G applications.

In this article, a dual-mode, dual-polarized antenna designed using characteristic mode analysis (CMA) is described. An elliptical-shaped patch radiator is chosen with double slits on its minor axis. This design is based on mode separation from the circular patch into the elliptical patch. The suggested antenna geometry has a footprint of 60 mm × 60 mm × 1.6 mm. To design and fabricate the antenna, an FR-4 substrate with a relative permittivity of 4.3 is used, along with copper sheets 0.035 mm thick for the ground plane and the radiating plane. The circular patch has the resonating mode at 1.8 GHz, whereas the elliptical radiator gives different resonant modes at 1.8 GHz and 3.5 GHz. An orthogonal mode is excited with a 50-Ω coaxial feed line at 3.5 GHz by applying a full-wave approach. The antenna gives a -10dB bandwidth of 51 MHz (1.77-1.82 GHz) centered at 1.8 GHz and a bandwidth of 210 MHz (3.37-3.58 GHz) centered at 3.5 GHz. The working principle is explained through modal analysis and characteristic angles. This dual-band antenna covers a 1.8 GHz GSM band with horizontal polarization and a 3.5 GHz 5G service with vertical polarization. Peak gain attained with these bands is 5.9 dBi and 7.1 dBi, respectively. A CST full-wave simulator is used for the simulations. As a result of the antenna, radiation is stable and enhanced. Compared to measured results, simulation results are close to reality. The characteristic mode analysis (CMA) provides an in-depth look into different operating modes on the antenna in contrast with the conventional method, which relies on the simulated current distribution to verify functionality.

[Predictive Value of the Huaxi Emotional Index in Assessing and Identifying High Suicide Risk Among Inpatients With Depression]. / åŽè¥¿å¿ƒæ™´æŒ‡æ•°åœ¨æŠ‘éƒç—‡ä½é™¢æ‚£è€ é«˜è‡ªæ€é£Žé™©è¯„ä¼°ä¸­çš„é¢„æµ‹ä½œç”¨.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the agreement between the Huaxi Emotional Index (HEI) and the Nurses' Global Assessment of Suicide Risk (NGASR) in assessing high suicide risk and to explore the predictive value of HEI in identifying high suicide risk among patients with depression. Methods: Convenience sampling was used and 386 inpatients with depression were included in this cross-sectional study. All patients were admitted to the Mental Health Center, West China Hospital between June and December 2023. The inclusion criteria were as follows, a diagnosis of depression according to the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10), age over 18, and completion of both NGASR and HEI assessments. According to the exclusion criteria, depression patients who had other comorbid mental disorders or those who had severe cognitive impairments and were unable to communicate effectively were excluded. The study was approved by the Biomedical Ethics Review Committee of West China Hospital (Approval No. 647, 2021). Demographic data such as age, sex, ethnicity, marital status, and educational attainment were collected using a self-designed questionnaire. Both the HEI and NGASR were applied to evaluate the patients. We conducted statistical analyses with SPSS 27, employing Spearman's rank correlation for correlation analysis, Kappa tests for consistency between the two instruments, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for evaluating the predictive performance of HEI scores for high suicide risk, with the optimal HEI cutoff value determined on the basis of the Youden Index. Results: The study included 386 depression inpatients with an average age of 32 years and an average length-of-stay of 14 days. Of these participants, 252 were female (65.3%) and 134 were male (34.7%). Regarding ethnicity, most of the participants were Han Chinese (89.4%), Tibetans accounted for 7.3%, and other minorities, 3.3%. Regarding marital status, 51.3% of the participants were married, 41.2% single, 6.5% divorced, and 1.0% widowed. Regarding educational attainment, 26.2% had an undergraduate or graduate education, 20.7% had junior college education, 24.8% had high school or secondary technical school education, and 28.2% had middle school education or less. The NGASR identified 57.3% of the participants as being at high suicide risk, while the HEI identified 53.6% as having severe emotional distress. There was a moderate agreement between the HEI and the NGASR scores, with a Kappa value of 0.518 ( P<0.001), indicating statistically significant differences. At an HEI score of 17, the Youden Index peaked at 0.52, predicting high suicide risk with a specificity of 76.36%, a sensitivity of 76.02%, and an area under the ROC curve of 0.829 (95% CI: 0.787-0.871), demonstrating statistically significant differences. Conclusion: HEI and NGASR demonstrate moderate agreement in assessing high suicide risk among depression patients. The HEI questionnaire effectively predicts high suicide risk in patients with depression, with 17 being the optimal cutoff value for assessing high suicide risk.

Dynamic changes in the aroma profiles and volatiles of Enshi Yulu tea throughout its industrial processing.

Although Enshi Yulu tea (ESYL) possesses a distinctive fragrance, there is a scarcity of studies focusing on its primary volatiles or aroma genesis. This study aims to elucidate the dynamics in the profiles of aromas and volatiles through aroma profiling analysis and headspace solid-phase microextraction/gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. A total of 10 aroma attributes and 128 volatiles were identified in ESYL, with geraniol and linalool exhibiting the highest levels, and alcohols constituting the predominant proportion. Besides, a relative odor activity value (ROAV) based molecular aroma wheel was constructed, revealing 12 key odorants with ROAVs >1, wherein linalool, ß-ionone, and nonanal ranked highest. Notably, steaming and final drying emerged as critical steps for ESYL aroma development, while the non-enzymatic degradation of fatty acids likely contributed to the formation of its fresh aroma. These findings significantly enhance our comprehension of ESYL aroma formation.

Characterization of two virulent Salmonella phages and transient application in egg, meat and lettuce safety.

Salmonella, a prominent foodborne pathogen, has posed enduring challenges to the advancement of food safety and global public health. The escalating concern over antibiotic misuse, resulting in the excessive presence of drug residues in animal-derived food products, necessitates urgent exploration of alternative strategies for Salmonella control. Bacteriophages emerge as promising green biocontrol agents against pathogenic bacteria. This study delineates the identification of two novel virulent Salmonella phages, namely phage vB_SalS_ABTNLsp11241 (referred to as sp11241) and phage 8-19 (referred to as 8-19). Both phages exhibited efficient infectivity against Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis (SE). Furthermore, this study evaluated the effectiveness of two phages to control SE in three different foods (whole chicken eggs, raw chicken meat, and lettuce) at different MOIs (1, 100, and 10000) at 4°C. It's worth noting that sp11241 and 8-19 achieved complete elimination of SE on eggs after 3 h and 6 h at MOI = 100, and after 2 h and 5 h at MOI = 10000, respectively. After 12 h of treatment with sp11241, a maximum reduction of 3.17 log10 CFU/mL in SE was achieved on raw chicken meat, and a maximum reduction of 3.00 log10 CFU/mL was achieved on lettuce. Phage 8-19 has the same effect on lettuce as sp11241, but is slightly less effective than sp11241 on chicken meat (a maximum 2.69 log10 CFU/mL reduction). In conclusion, sp11241 and 8-19 exhibit considerable potential for controlling Salmonella contamination in food at a low temperature and represent viable candidates as green antibacterial agents for food applications.

Intermolecular copigmentation of anthocyanins with phenolic compounds improves color stability in the model and real blueberry fermented beverage.

To improve the color stability of anthocyanins (ACNs) in blueberry fermented beverage, the intermolecular copigmentation between ACNs and 3 different phenolic compounds, including (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), ferulic acid (FA), and gallic acid (GA) as copigments, was compared in the model and the real blueberry fermented beverage, respectively. The copigmented ACNs by EGCG presented a high absorbance (0.34 a.u.) and redness (27.09 ± 0.17) in the model blueberry fermented beverage. The copigmentation by the participation of the 3 different phenolic compounds showed all a spontaneous exothermic reaction, and the Gibbs free energy (ΔG°) of the system was lowest (-5.90 kJ/mol) using EGCG as copigment. Furthermore, the molecular docking model verified that binary complexes formed between ACNs and copigments by hydrogen bonds and π-π stacking. There was a high absorbance (1.02 a.u.), percentage polymeric color (PC%, 68.3 %), and good color saturation (C*ab, 43.28) in the real blueberry fermented beverage aged for 90 days, and more malvidin-3-O-glucoside had been preserved in the wine using EGCG as copigment. This finding may guide future industrial production of blueberry fermented beverage with improved color.

Two-parameter C-history method: A fast and accurate method for determining the characteristic parameters of formaldehyde/VOC early-stage emissions from building materials.

With the worsening indoor air quality in developing countries, more and more attention is being paid to indoor air pollution, especially formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from indoor building materials. A series of methods, such as the C-history method, have been proposed to determine the mechanistic parameters of formaldehyde and other VOC emissions. However, these methods require a relatively long test duration (at least 3 days) and may yield a multi-solution problem for these parameters. Therefore, we have developed a novel method, the two-parameter C-history method, to overcome these limitations by measuring the two early-stage emission characteristic parameters for formaldehyde/VOCs. The experimental results validate the accuracy of this method for different building materials and showed that the test duration can be substantially shortened to within 12 h. Based on this, we propose a new method to quickly predict the two emission characteristic parameters at different temperatures. We optimize the experimental parameters and discuss their influence to further improve accuracy. This method will be useful in engineering applications.

Multi-Server Multi-Function Distributed Computation.

The work here studies the communication cost for a multi-server multi-task distributed computation framework, as well as for a broad class of functions and data statistics. Considering the framework where a user seeks the computation of multiple complex (conceivably non-linear) tasks from a set of distributed servers, we establish the communication cost upper bounds for a variety of data statistics, function classes, and data placements across the servers. To do so, we proceed to apply, for the first time here, Körner's characteristic graph approach-which is known to capture the structural properties of data and functions-to the promising framework of multi-server multi-task distributed computing. Going beyond the general expressions, and in order to offer clearer insight, we also consider the well-known scenario of cyclic dataset placement and linearly separable functions over the binary field, in which case, our approach exhibits considerable gains over the state of the art. Similar gains are identified for the case of multi-linear functions.

Characterization of VOCs emissions and associated health risks inherent to the packaging and printing industries in Shandong Province, China.

Comprehensive volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission control is imperative to decreasing occupational health risks and environmental impact of the packaging and printing industries. In this work, we investigated the VOCs emission characteristics and concentrations of individual contaminants generated by the packaging and printing industries, with regard to various categories, processes, and geographic regions. VOCs emissions, ozone formation potential (OFP), and associated health risks were assessed at 10 representative packaging and printing firms across several cities in Shandong Province, China. Plastic packaging enterprises had the greatest levels of unorganized VOCs emissions, consisting predominantly of oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs), followed by alkanes and halocarbons. From metal and paper packaging enterprises, OVOCs, alkanes, and aromatics were significant components of unorganized VOCs emissions. Aromatics, halocarbons, and OVOCs contributed significantly to OFP in workshops. The potential carcinogenic risk associated with VOCs in the packaging and printing industries was not significant. However, according to the findings in this study, the workshop environment may provide a comparatively elevated non-carcinogenic risk attributable to ethyl acetate, isopropanol, acrolein, 1,1,2-Trichloroethane, 1,2-Dichloropropane, and naphthalene exposure. In particular, the endocrine-disrupting and genetic toxic effects caused by benzene, toluene, styrene, and naphthalene should not be overlooked. Thus, it is essential to provide precedence to the working environment conditions of workshop laborers, while also undertaking scientific and systematic measures to mitigate the detrimental impacts of VOCs on the environment and human welfare.

Genome-wide identification, characterization, and expression analysis of the small auxin-up RNA gene family during zygotic and somatic embryo maturation of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao).

Small auxin-up RNA (SAUR) proteins were known as a large family that supposedly participated in various biological processes in higher plant species. However, the SAUR family has been still not explored in cacao (Theobroma cacao L.), one of the most important industrial trees. The present work, as an in silico study, revealed comprehensive aspects of the structure, phylogeny, and expression of TcSAUR gene family in cacao. A total of 90 members of the TcSAUR gene family have been identified and annotated in the cacao genome. According to the physic-chemical features analysis, all TcSAUR proteins exhibited slightly similar characteristics. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these TcSAUR proteins could be categorized into seven distinct groups, with 10 sub-groups. Our results suggested that tandemly duplication events, segmental duplication events, and whole genome duplication events might be important in the growth of the TcSAUR gene family in cacao. By re-analyzing the available transcriptome databases, we found that a number of TcSAUR genes were exclusively expressed during the zygotic embryogenesis and somatic embryogenesis. Taken together, our study will be valuable to further functional characterizations of candidate TcSAUR genes for the genetic engineering of cacao.

Electrochemical chlorine evolution reaction to improve the desalination of sea sand.

Sea sand, a vital sand and gravel resource, is rich in chloride, which causes corrosion of steel reinforcements. This study investigates the effect of the electrochemical chlorine evolution reaction (CER) on the desalination of sea sand. The results indicate that the chlorine removal efficiency (RE) of sea sand increased from 48.76 to 56.40 % under optimal conditions: a current density of 15 mA/cm2, an electrolysis time of 1 min, and a sodium sulphate-supported electrolyte concentration of 0.05 mol/L. After 30 days of resting, the dissolved chlorine content in sea sand was 0.154 %, which was 21.03 % lower than that of the control group. The electrically active chlorine-mediated desalination process demonstrated excellent dechlorination ability, facilitated the transformation of metal and organic chlorine into liquid and gaseous forms, and reduced the slow release of chloride from sea sand. Therefore, CER is expected to be an efficient method for sea sand desalination.